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Most Americans can't name a battle or a general from World War 1, but the conflict completely changed our world.
This year give the gift of knowledge about World War 1. "Courage" tells the story of life one hundred years ago through the eyes of Roy Blanchard, an unsung World War 1 soldier from the American Midwest. Through his eyes you will see how the world descended into devastating conflict, what it was like to fight in the trenches of World War 1, and how brave American soldiers helped

Read ​Part 1 Here
Reading aloud has always been easy for me. As a Pastor I often read scripture in front of large groups of people. I have also read to my four children for years. In order to keep their attention I gradually introduced voice inflection and even sometimes different voices.
However, reading an audio book added a level or two of difficulty. In order to read the paragraphs with some level of dramatic inflection my mind needed to be several lines ahead of my mouth. Since I had

Several months ago I went into the studio to turn my book “Courage: Roy Blanchard’s Journey in America’s Forgotten War,” into an audio book.
The book has made it to the top 5 in several categories and is available in both the print version and digital, but from the day it was released I had received requests for an audio version.
I headed into my publishers office. Made for Success has helped turn hundreds of books into audio books. I was greeted by the head of their audio book department and

A Historian's Review of Wonder Woman
From Wonder Woman, 2017
Steve Trevor: This is no man's land, Diana! It means no man can cross it, alright? This battalion has been here for nearly a year and they've barely gained an inch. All right? Because on the other side there are a bunch of Germans pointing machine guns at every square inch of this place. This is not something you can cross. It's not possible.
Diana Prince: So... what? So we do nothing?
Steve Trevor: No, we are doing something! We

Dancing with Death: Three Shocking Historical Facts about Wonder Woman’s Villain
In Wonder Woman, Diana Prince has a short dance with Erich Ludendorff, the leader of Germany’s Armed Forces in late World War 1. There she comes face to face with the evil she believed to be the cause of the war.
The historical Ludendorff is fascinating as well. While he departs in significant ways from how he is portrayed in the Warner Brothers film. He did represent the most brutal of German

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote this poem in 1915 after presiding over the funeral of a friend and fellow soldier.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw

100 years ago the United States declared war on Germany in order to stop the madness of World War 1. For nearly three years Wilson had watched the western world descend into the stalemated morass of total war. By early 1917 Wilson concluded that war was unavoidable for the United States. The above video shows the excited response. Both the original footage and the 1950s narration seem from another world.
The war was complex, and few Americans know the story. The best way to understand the

November 1916 – Woodrow Wilson wins reelection. Many of his surrogates campaign for him saying, “He Kept Us out of War.” These slogans outrage Wilson, who knows how close the US has come to entering the conflict. Only skillful diplomacy and patience had kept them out after the Lusitania and Sussex tragedies.
December 1916. After a brutal year of fighting Britain, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and France hardened their hearts against peace. They had lost too much in 1916 – 1 million casualties

This is the telegram that brought the US onto the world stage in 1917, one hundred years ago.
With an army smaller than Portugal's (approximately 120,000) and a president reluctant to bring the US into war. This Telegram was the final straw.
Decoded, it read,
We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on